Category Archives: Soup

I’m not at all a religious person. Not even slightly. I go for months at a time without religion or god even crossing my mind. I kind of like it that way. To quote one of my favorite bands, Rilo Kiley, the absence of god will bring you comfort, baby.

My mom is religious and very involved with our temple. While I am not religious, I can certainly appreciate the sense of community that religion can bring and I am so glad that the temple my parents belong to is so open-minded and relaxed.

But, it’s almost Passover. Which means, showing up at my parents house, looking slightly respectable and eating. Passover is not at all a vegan friendly holiday – at least not traditionally. Matzoh ball soup – made with chicken, chicken stock and eggs, some sort of meat (usually something really fatty like brisket), a hardboiled egg on the sedar plate and shank bone on the sedar plate (this seriously grosses me out, even if you are eating meat – do you really want to look at a bone while you do it? Ew).Plus gefilte fish – which have always made me want to puke – fish in a jar – NO. Just no.

There are a few things that you can do to make Passover a little more vegan friendly. The easiest thing is replacing the egg with a flower and the shank bone with a beet (the beet is even Talmud approved). I asked my mom if we could do these two simple things and she reluctantly agreed (my mom really likes tradition).

My favorite thing at the Passover table (and year round, really) is matzoh ball soup. It’s delicious and it’s the only thing I’m really bummed about not eating. Although if you remember, it really didn’t smell so appealing the other morning. But, there is a recipe for a vegan version that I’m going to try out this weekend – Isa Chandra Moskowitz wrote a recipe for her Web site and for Vegan with a Vengeance. I have yet to try it, but I have to say that the majority of her recipes are excellent and I really can’t wait to make this one.

If you keep Passover, that’s where things can get tricky. Did you know that you can’t have soy during Passover? Or rice. Or corn. Along with anything leavened. Even quinoa is questionable. I know that it can be done – but I’ve never kept Passover before – so I doubt that I am going to start now.

But, for any of you vegans that do keep Passover? What do you do?

Oh and please remember to enter this contest and tell your friends about it. It’s such an amazing campaign that could really use your support.

This entry is going to be extra scattered and all over the place today.

Work has gotten CRAZY. To the point where I couldn’t post at work (like I normally do). I got rid of the internet at my apartment – I was spending way too much time working at home, so I decided that if I was going to be working at home – work should pay for my internet. So, until they do, no more internet connection for me. So, I’m typing this in Word and I’m going to post it first thing in the morning – which is pretty much what I will be doing from now on. Just in case you cared.

My entries this week may be light, I’m off to Natural Products Expo for most of the week. I’m crossed between dreading it (it’s going to be EXHAUSTING) and being super excited about it – I get to meet the founders of some of my favorite products (Manitoba Harvest, Guayaki, Daiya…to name a few). It’s a crazy show and there will be over 60,000 people there. My hours are insane – 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. every morning and I didn’t even get a hotel room (I live 30 minutes from the show and decided that I would much rather sleep in my bed). So, entries will definitely be light, but look for some fun posts after the show.

So, I’m trying to do tons of laundry and get my apartment spotless – the last thing I want to come home to when I am exhausted is a messy apartment. My apartment currently looks like a bomb went off inside of it – so I have quite a bit of work ahead of me.

The veganism is going awesome. I haven’t even been tempted to eat non-vegan food. I have been overeating and overindulging on some foods recently (lots of bread, tortilla chips, oven French fries, baked goods, coconut ice cream) all vegan, all delicious – but not so good for my waist. The last thing I want is to turn this into a weight loss blog – but I do need to keep my eating in check – I’m going to start focusing more on lower calorie, lower fat vegan foods and eating more fruits and vegetables (as opposed to breads, crackers, chips, etc.)

I made the chickpea tomato soup in VeganYumYum tonight to take for lunches this week. I made a few slight changes based on not having all the ingredients on hand and I used less oil than the recipe called for – I had a couple bites this morning and it’s delicious. Plus since it’s pureed with chickpeas – it should keep me really full throughout the day. Another bonus – it took me all of 20 minutes to make.

Heat oil in a pan with high sides (any soup pan will work). Add onion. Cook for for two minutes. Add garlic, chickpeas, chili powder, tumeric, chili flakes. Cook for another two minutes. Add tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes. Add hot water and nutritional yeast. Transfer to a blender in batches (or use an immersion blender) and blend until completely smooth. Top with fresh ground pepper.

So, the exciting blog news?

Well, I promise that within the month, I will actually take the time to learn how to wordpress and there will be pictures and links and all sorts of good stuff on here to make it look less boring.